firmly established themselves in the wacky lore of the Midnight Sun Run's costume division, finishing tied for second overall with a time of 32:50. In 1988, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Midnight Sun Run was born, as the newspaper became the event's title sponsor. With around 2,200 participants, the run had firmly established its current reputation as one of the premier running events in Alaska. In conjunction with the race, The first Midnight Sun Run Runner's Expo was staged in 2000, and featured former Olympian and renowned running guru and author Jeff Galloway, who conducted a seminar before a standing room only crowd at the UAF Patty Center. He talked about his experiences as a runner in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and answered a variety of questions on nutrition, injuries, training methods, marathon running, and spoke at length about his widely successful and influential marathon training strategies. In 2006, some fifty United States Army soldiers, members of the 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery with the 172 Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Wainwright, would not let their deployment in the Iraq War prevent them from participating in the Midnight Sun Run. They held their own 10 kilometer event in northern Iraq where they are part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In a press release, 1st Sgt. Antonio Boone said it was "Quite a bit different than the last couple times I have run it. There was no forest fire smoke, no costumes and no one cheering." The soldiers wore official Midnight Sun Run bibs bearing the number 411, and received T-shirts donated and shipped from Fairbanks by race organizers. "Keeps getting easier every time I run it", said Sgt. Chad McFall, who helped push and pull a 2,300-pound howitzer along the 10 K course in the 2004 and 2005 Midnight Sun Runs in Fairbanks, "[T]his year there was no howitzer. It made running the race a snap." The race went virtual in 2020 as officials blamed the COVID-19 pandemic as cause to cancel the live race. Top ten fastest finishing times Collateral contests Beginning in 1984, costumes have been a central theme for the Midnight Sun Run, and awards are given to the best coifed entrants. The costumed division is perhaps one of the most anticipated aspects of the race. Mike Styles said the idea of the costumed division was to create a Fairbanks version of San Francisco's Bay to Breakers race.